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6. CMN Inequality in South Africa

Looking back to the history we know that black people had many difficulties back then. White people were always steps ahead of them. Inequality was always there. Black people faced hatred and racism until they got their rights and freedom.

Nelson Mandela was the man who had a big influence on the black people. He changed so many things even though he suffered a lot in his journey to success. I’m going to talk about what has happened and what terms were common back then.

Inequality in South Africa (Apartheid System)

It is the racial discrimination in South Africa. It’s the system where black skinned people have less rights than those of who are white. For example black people could not use the sources of their country or they cannot get educated. What gives people rights was their skin color and nothing else.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail and when he was finally a free man he did not lose any more time and he made his recompense by becoming the president of the South Africa. By that he made an end to this apartheid system. Black people won their rights.

As I said inequality:

What Is Gini-coefficient?
It is the measure of inequality of a distribution. For example the value of 0 expresses a total equality and 1 expresses a total inequality.

In 1993 this number was 0.59 and it was obvious that there was not equality.
Even after the end of apartheid system, income inequality became worse. But between 1991 and 1999 black middle class grew by 78% while the white middle class grew only by 15%.

Even after the end of Apartheid, the country’s economy has not performed as much as expected. The modest growth at the average of 1.2 per cent between 1995 and 2008 was noticed. It is behind the East Asian growth rates by a lot. Also South Africa is suffering from unemployment.

Even though over the years black income has increased but there is still a differentiation between whites and blacks.

Mining Industry in South Africa:

South Africa is known for its mining and it is a big business in the country. Diamond was found in Orange River and that is how the mining started in 1867. But working conditions were really poor that many deaths were caused. Government had pushed the mining companies to fix this issue. By that deaths decreased from 500 in 1996 to a less than 200 in 2006.